Naperville teachers to vote on pact

New contract's details include 5.2 percent annual raises for all

August 30, 2005|By Grace Aduroja, Tribune staff reporter

Administrators in Naperville District 203 posted the details of a tentative teachers contract, which includes annual salary increases of more than 5 percent, on the district's Web site Monday night as hundreds of teachers met to discuss the details of the agreement.

District 203 teachers will vote on the agreement Tuesday morning, and the school board hopes to ratify the deal soon after.

Details of the agreement came a week after the threat of a teacher strike nearly delayed the beginning of school for the district, which has nearly 19,000 students. A work stoppage was avoided just hours before students were slated to resume classes Wednesday when district officials and union leaders struck a tentative deal at 2 a.m.

Under the new three-year contract, the nearly 1,400 teachers would receive an annual salary increase of about 5.2 percent. It represents a compromise between the 4.99 percent annual increase proposed by District 203 during the last round of talks and the 5.5 percent union officials sought.

The average salary increase for teachers under the last contract, negotiated in December 2001, was 5.37 percent. That deal also decreased the out-of-pocket insurance fees required from new teachers to 30 percent of their health insurance costs for two years, from 60 percent.

That provision was slightly amended in the tentative deal as the district would shift $250,000 in insurance costs to all teachers. And teachers agreed to pay an additional $45,000 for access to mental- and emotional-health services. Union officials and administrators said agreement on health insurance issues was not a major point of contention.

Besides salary, the other key sticking point were uncertainties surrounding retirement benefits because of changes to state funding of teachers' pensions.

In June, legislators approved a change in the formula that determines the amount of money districts pay when a teacher retires.

Union leaders said talks were difficult because the new restrictions and requirements on computing teacher retirement funds have not been put into practice.

"We had to try and figure all of that stuff out. It's a big guess, unfortunately," said Naperville Unit Education Association President Dave Griffith.

The district wanted to prevent paying unbudgeted penalties for violating the new rules, which are not yet precisely defined.

Under the agreement, unexpected fees incurred by the new regulations would be deducted from money the district pays toward a teacher's retirement.

"The bottom line is we capped our costs," Supt. Alan Leis said Monday evening at a news conference.